Access your location, create a track and put the pedal to the metal. Ovi Maps Racing gives racing game enthusiasts a totally unique gaming experience combining map navigation and racing. Why not race on your home street? In addition to creating your own tracks in European cities, you can also choose from pre-defined tracks and check global rankings.

Here’s the nitty gritty:

Graphics
This is a 2D top down racing game. In other words, you get a bird’s eye view as you play the game. Nothing too spectacular, if you are expecting 3D. (Nokia: hint, hint) For what it is worth though if you are not amazed by the graphics the app more than makes up for it in game play alone. Read on.

Game play
Options, options, options. When the game loads up, you already have two options: 1) Playing Online, where you can create tracks based on your actual physical location, and play ‘ghost’ opponents and 2) Playing Offline, where you play pre-created tracks on a solo track. You also can choose language preference here [English (UK), French, Italian, German, and Spanish].

Once you make your choice of online/offline play, you are brought to the main menu where you have more options:

Quick Play> for a quick, randomly selected track
Race > where you select a track, and a car, and race
Create > where you can create a custom track based on actual existing cities

Oh, and before you race, you have the option of 3 different cars:
Kenbishi R45GT (Easy handling for Beginners)
Mancini 395 Coupe (More sensitive control for Intermediate)
Stallion SRS (High-powered for Advanced users)

Music/Sound FX
Really great music and sound throughout the game. From the menu buttons to the in-game effects, peeling rubber never sounded so good!

Controls
The controls are very simple. Acceleration is automatic, so all you need to do is control your car with the on screen buttons to move left or right.

Don’t want to toot our own horn here, but the folks at Nokia who were behind this game did a phenomenal job. Here’s my breakdown on the PROS and CONS:

PROS
-Multiple Language Support
-Intuitive User Interface
-20 Different pre-set tracks
-Create a track functionality
-Good music/sound
-Easy Controls
-FREE GAME!

CONS
-Playing in the US – There are no maps to customize
-As of now there is no multiplayer support, only ‘ghost opponents’

So when you talk about a game with so much functionality such as this one, and you throw on the ‘Free’ price tag, you honestly can not go wrong. All around excellent game with tons of customizations. Download it today!

Game on.

This game is available for Nokia S60 5th Edition devices.  The app is available for free in Ovi Store, and it can be downloaded here.